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Federal spending cuts hit NWT national parks Lyndsay Herman Northern News Services Published Monday, May 7, 2012
Bill Fisher, director general of Western and Northern Canada for Parks Canada, said the employment changes have affected about one-quarter of the NWT's 106 Parks Canada employees. The employment changes include either shortened work seasons for seasonal employment or job elimination for positions determined by Parks Canada as surplus. Employees were also asked if they were interested in volunteering to leave their positions, so as to minimize the affects on those who wanted to stay. "The jobs we felt could be eliminated without impacting programming and services to the public or partners or stakeholders, we looked at those positions first," said Fisher. "There were some of those, not very many in the field but more in our national office or in some of our service centre areas. "We also asked individuals who maybe were interested in volunteering to leave and so that certainly would help in terms of reducing the impact on those who did want to stay." The job cuts come in the wake of the federal government's decision to cut more than 19,000 jobs in public service and reduce overall spending on federal programs. Christine Wenman, water programming co-ordinator for Ecology North, said the cuts cannot be seen in isolation and are, in her opinion, part of a dark trend in federal regulation of Canada's natural environment. "I see it as part of a concerted effort to undermine Canada's ability to manage our natural environment, monitor it, conserve it and celebrate it, " said Wenman. "I would add that it's being done at the exclusion of public debates. "We are seeing deliberate moves to limit what can be said by scientists who are housed within the federal government let alone cuts to having scientists housed within the federal government. We're seeing changes to environmental legislation which are being tucked away within budget bills, which we've seen before with this government, its not actually new." Parks Canada, in co-operation with the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), has launched career and emotional counselling programs for affected employees, their families and employees who were not impacted. "We do have employee and family assistance program counselling that is available to all employees whether they are impacted or not by these decisions," said Fisher. "We also have support tools on our internal Internet site for employees who are interested in that. For those employees who will be losing their jobs, there will be additional opportunities for them to take appropriate training or development in things like resume writing and preparing for interviews and other types of career counselling." Fisher said the employees who volunteer to vacate their employment will still have access to these programs. The department is considering third-party operation of hot pools in Banff, Jasper and Kootney National Parks but has no plans to do so in the NWT. The cuts have not been easy to make and Parks Canada has worked hard to minimize the effects on its employees as well as visitors to the NWT, Fisher said. "We're located in many small communities in the North and so we are often friends or neighbours or we have family working in these parks and sites," he said. "We realize that this is difficult and we are also committed to working with the local communities, the aboriginal organizations, and the local tourism industry in particular to make sure that we continue to provide the very best services possible for visitors whether they are coming from the territory, elsewhere in Canada, or indeed from somewhere else in the world. " As of April 30, four federal departments had issued notices informing 114 Northern employees that their jobs may be impacted.
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